Thread by @andrewmccalip

Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.

Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours,  so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first.

Getting the DAQ set up. Will do multi channel thermocouple probes in furnace to ensure best control. We verified 930°C with our small 6"x6"x6" furnace. All data logged to Influx so we can verify ramp rates.

We're taking over the deep storage corner of the warehouse. Some other hobbies are visible in the background. Still trying to get Elon to send it up on Starship.

Our TVAC chamber (Sucky McSuckFace) will provide the 1e-5torr vacuum source we need. Dry multistage roots + turbo.

We need to practice one of the critical steps, vacuum sealed quartz tubes. I've done tons of glass working, but never in quartz. It took a bit of tuning, but we achieved a fairly nice tube end after a few tries. This will be tight well below 1e-5torr.

Sealing one end of the quartz tube.

Thomas working the torch. We grabbed the weldment rotary table positioner and turned it into a tubing fixture. It's quite nice to have the pedal control to flip the tube over. We're amateurs, but this feels like it could work.

I absolutely, positively love the reaction that Twitter has had to LK99. Never seen anything so positively received on Twitter. If this can be replicated, the authors will be the next Einstein or Bohr. I hope I can help play a small part in moving humanity forward.